SALZBURG, May 5, 2022 - The former 2nd vice-president Michael Schuen ("Kleine Zeitung") is the new President of Sports Media Austria. The 50-year-old from Graz was unanimously elected as the new chairman of the association by the General Assembly in Salzburg. The previous president Hans Peter Trost (ORF), in office since 2014, did not stand for re-election for professional reasons.
Stefan Grüneis (Austria Press Agency) will remain 1st vice-president for the next four years, Michael Smejkal (Salzburger Nachrichten) was elected 2nd vice-president. New to the Presidency is Dr. Gabriela Jahn as deputy treasurer. Alina Zellhofer (both ORF), among others, was brought on the board as a new assessor. Also new are one of the three auditors and both substitute auditors.
The meeting was also attended by AIPS president Gianni Merlo and AIPS staff Azra Isic, as well as representatives from Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
This is the new board of Sports Media Austria:
President: Michael SCHUEN
1st Vice-President: Mag. Stefan GRÜNEIS
2nd Vice-President: Michael SMEJKAL
Treasurer: Barbara GINDL
Deputy Treasurer: Dr. Gabriela JAHN
Secretary General: Josef LANGER
Deputy Secretary General: Ronald GOLLATZ
Assessors: Christian HOFER, Mark Michael NANSECK, Adam NIEDERKORN, Matthias STELZMÜLLER, Alina ZELLHOFER, Christoph ZÖPFL.
Auditors: Kurt RAUNEGGER, Ingo RICKL and Marcel WEIGL. - Substitute examiners: Gerhard ÖHLINGER, Keke PLATZER.
For this purpose, four of our colleagues were appointed honorary members:
Kurt AHAMMER - long-time auditor of Sports Media Austria
Prof. Kristian BISSUTI - "Krone" photographer, board member for many years
Gunther DRESSNANDT - Former sports director of the Upper Austria "Krone"
Prof. Robert SEEGER - ORF reporter legend, former board member
As an absolute highlight, the General Assembly made the outgoing Chairman Hans Peter Trost, by acclamation, an honorary president. Trost, surprised by this honour, thanked in witty words.
The presidents of the largest sports associations football and skiing, Gerhard Milletich and Roswitha Stadlober, came to the first personal meeting after two years of Corona break. The Olympic champions Alexandra Meissnitzer (Alpine Skiing) and Stefan Kraft (Ski Jumping) also answered the journalists' questions and answers.
AIPS President Gianni Merlo reported on "News from AIPS", focusing on the AIPS Awards and inviting the members of Sports Media Austria to submit even more contributions next year.
As part of the conference, the Sports Media Austria Prize (presented by Coca-Cola), endowed with a total of 6,500 euros, was also awarded. The main prize was won by photographer Christian Bruna (EPA), other category winners: Markku Datler (text/Die Presse), Martin Schauhuber (multimedia/Der Standard), Nik Mahatsek/Nik Strecha (video/Servus TV) and Lorenz Kirchschlager/Simon Peter Charamza (audio/KaffeehausTALK). The Young Reporter Award went to photographer Lukas Huter (EXPA Pictures).
All in all, after two cancellations due to the pandemic, it was a successful return to normality for around 80 journalists.
